SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
-learners as responsible owners of learning
-significant role of motivation and volition
in SDL control shifts from teachers to learners
BENEFITS
-learners grow awareness of responsibility in making learning meaningful and monitoring themselves
-learners motivated, persistent, independent, self-disciplined, self-contained, goal-oriented
-show ability to search for information across multiple texts, utilize different strategies to solve problems, represent ideas across forms
TEACHERS
-those who want to encourage SDL should break from habit of tracking and correcting errors
-encourage learners to reflect and revise
-learner participation in decisions about what to learn, when and how to learn, and evaluation practices
-teachers should be tolerant of uncertainty, promote risk taking, emphasize student strengths over weakness
(ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication Digest 169)
TEACHER DIRECTED LEARNING
-believes learner has dependent personality
-believes learners experience is less valuable than teacher knowledge, books, etc
-student is subject-oriented
-student motivated by external rewards vs
SDL
-learner has capacity and need to be self directed
-learning experience rich resource for learning
-learner task/problem oriented
-student motivated by internal incentives
(Self-directed learning by Malcolm Knowles)
SKILLS OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
The ability to develop and be in touch with curiosities. Perhaps another way to describe this skill would be "the ability to engage in divergent thinking."
The ability to perceive one's self objectively and accept feedback about one's performance non-defensively
The ability to diagnose one's learning needs in the light of models of competencies required for performing life roles.
The ability to formulate learning objectives in terms that describe performance outcomes.
The ability to identify human, material, and experiential resources for accomplishing various kinds of learning objectives.
The ability to design a plan of strategies for making use of appropriate learning resources effectively.
The ability to carry out a learning plan systematically and sequentially. This skill is the beginning of the ability to engage in convergent thinking.
The ability to collect evidence of the accomplishment of learning objectives and have it validated through performance.
(“Lifelong Learning: A Dream” by Malcolm Knowles)
Using social media to foster SDL (Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies)
Blogging/podcasting: individuals read/listen and comment on range of blogs, individuals can write their own blogs to reflect on learning or to make sense of what they are learning, indiv. can write blogs for “philosophizing, providing opinions, or to record updates on their own activities”
Social network/community: individuals can join networks to learn from other like-minding people by asking questions and having discussions
Social bookmarking: individuals can save, tag, share and recover websites of personal or professional interest, can see what others with similar interests are bookmarking
(http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/examples2.html)
Phil Candy (1991) Goal Method Use in life Personal Autonomy Autodidaxy (knowing how to learn what you need to learn) Use in student role Self-managed Learning Learner-controlled activity
What this means: learner controlled activity (such as an independent study) is not the same thing as autodidaxy. Without teaching the student to look critically at their self-learning process, they will never truly arrive at the goal of self-managed learning. It is not an automatic cause and effect. So how does a teacher guide a student from the method to the goal?
1) Make use of learner’s existing knowledge
2) Encourage deep level learning
3) Increase questioning by the learner
4) Develop critical thinking capability
5) Enhance reading skills
6) Enhance monitoring skills of their own learning
Gerald Grow (1998)
If students are not ready for that level of mature self directed learning, progress can be reached through this process: dependant learning > interested learning > involved learning > self-directed learning
The SDL Spectrum:
Incidental Self-Directed Learning. The occasional introduction of SDL activities into courses or programs that are otherwise teacher-directed (e.g. individual projects, stations, or brief introduction of any other forms of SDL on the spectrum).
Teaching Students to Think Independently. Courses or programs that emphasize the personal pursuit of meaning through exploration, inquiry, problem solving and creative activity (e.g. debates, case studies, investigations, trials, dramatizations, fieldwork).
Self-Managed Learning. Courses or programs presented through learning guides that students complete independently.
Self-Planned Learning. Courses or programs in which students pursue course outcomes through activities they design themselves.
Self-Directed Learning. Courses or programs in which students choose the outcomes, design their own activities and pursue them in their own way.
For next week, collaborate on how these methods be integrated into Dimensions of Creativity
Is it essential to higher education? yes, it teaches students how to learn and that skill can be appllied to life. How would media classes integrate SDL? Structure projects like UBC
Go to primary resources (Grow and Candy)
__http://www.muw.edu/honors/independent_study.htm__
Interesting to note that the teacher’s past experience has been that students leave their work to the last minute and don’t take deadlines seriously. The teacher’s solution is to impose a letter-grade deduction for every missed deadline.
2) In this assignment, the student is expected to take more initiative and produce something unique. The theme is defined but the medium of delivery is up to the student. The concept must be approved by the teacher.
Teacher’s motivation for the project: “...our higher education systems seldom give opportunities for students to develop their practical and conceptual abilities to link intellectual thought and creative expression. So here is an opportunity!”
3) This phase of the course encourages students to apply their initiative in an exercise in critical thinking. The theme requirement is consistent with the rest of the course (war theme) and the finished result has specific requirements (“two pages double-spaced in length, describing the setting of the movie and your reflections on the film”) but the implementation of the film analysis, and analysis topic selection is up to the student.
4) “The Individual Learning Project (ILP) is an assignment that provides the student with the
maximum flexibility to pursue their own interests within the framework of the course subject.”
To accomplish this, the teacher suggests a variety of topics with very open ended parameters. Length is specified but the subject matter and source material is not.
Why I think this is a in/effective: I think the way the projects build on each-other is an effective way to teach students what learning independently means. The course structure allows the student to gain an educated foundation in the course field of study before they are expected to selects a topic for independent thought. At the same time, the student is also gradually introduced to the concept of independent learning. By the end of the course they will not only have learned about “WAR AND SOCIETY”, they will also have gained important self-directed learning skills which they will be able to apply in other courses.
“In a world in which the half-life of many facts and skills may be ten years or less, half of what a person has acquired at the age of twenty may be obsolete by the time the person is thirty.”
So true-from the time I learned about the solar system in middle school till now,we’ve lost an entire planet!
“Through self-directed learning you can control what you want to learn, how you want to learn and when you want to learn.”
Maybe in a perfect world, but I think a majority of people are too lazy to implement this method into all aspects of their education. There is some basic knowledge every student has to have...that’s the whole point of a liberal arts education.
-learners as responsible owners of learning
-significant role of motivation and volition
in SDL control shifts from teachers to learners
BENEFITS
-learners grow awareness of responsibility in making learning meaningful and monitoring themselves
-learners motivated, persistent, independent, self-disciplined, self-contained, goal-oriented
-show ability to search for information across multiple texts, utilize different strategies to solve problems, represent ideas across forms
TEACHERS
-those who want to encourage SDL should break from habit of tracking and correcting errors
-encourage learners to reflect and revise
-learner participation in decisions about what to learn, when and how to learn, and evaluation practices
-teachers should be tolerant of uncertainty, promote risk taking, emphasize student strengths over weakness
(ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication Digest 169)
TEACHER DIRECTED LEARNING
-believes learner has dependent personality
-believes learners experience is less valuable than teacher knowledge, books, etc
-student is subject-oriented
-student motivated by external rewards
vs
SDL
-learner has capacity and need to be self directed
-learning experience rich resource for learning
-learner task/problem oriented
-student motivated by internal incentives
(Self-directed learning by Malcolm Knowles)
SKILLS OF SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING
(“Lifelong Learning: A Dream” by Malcolm Knowles)
Using social media to foster SDL (Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies)
Blogging/podcasting: individuals read/listen and comment on range of blogs, individuals can write their own blogs to reflect on learning or to make sense of what they are learning, indiv. can write blogs for “philosophizing, providing opinions, or to record updates on their own activities”
Social network/community: individuals can join networks to learn from other like-minding people by asking questions and having discussions
Social bookmarking: individuals can save, tag, share and recover websites of personal or professional interest, can see what others with similar interests are bookmarking
(http://c4lpt.co.uk/handbook/examples2.html)
Phil Candy (1991)
Goal Method
Use in life Personal Autonomy Autodidaxy (knowing how to learn what you need to learn)
Use in student role Self-managed Learning Learner-controlled activity
What this means: learner controlled activity (such as an independent study) is not the same thing as autodidaxy. Without teaching the student to look critically at their self-learning process, they will never truly arrive at the goal of self-managed learning. It is not an automatic cause and effect. So how does a teacher guide a student from the method to the goal?
1) Make use of learner’s existing knowledge
2) Encourage deep level learning
3) Increase questioning by the learner
4) Develop critical thinking capability
5) Enhance reading skills
6) Enhance monitoring skills of their own learning
Gerald Grow (1998)
If students are not ready for that level of mature self directed learning, progress can be reached through this process: dependant learning > interested learning > involved learning > self-directed learning
The SDL Spectrum:
Incidental Self-Directed Learning.
The occasional introduction of SDL activities into courses or programs that are otherwise teacher-directed (e.g. individual projects, stations, or brief introduction of any other forms of SDL on the spectrum).
Teaching Students to Think Independently.
Courses or programs that emphasize the personal pursuit of meaning through exploration, inquiry, problem solving and creative activity (e.g. debates, case studies, investigations, trials, dramatizations, fieldwork).
Self-Managed Learning.
Courses or programs presented through learning guides that students complete independently.
Self-Planned Learning.
Courses or programs in which students pursue course outcomes through activities they design themselves.
Self-Directed Learning.
Courses or programs in which students choose the outcomes, design their own activities and pursue them in their own way.
(from __http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/SDLProgram.html)__
For next week, collaborate on how these methods be integrated into Dimensions of Creativity
Is it essential to higher education? yes, it teaches students how to learn and that skill can be appllied to life. How would media classes integrate SDL? Structure projects like UBC
Go to primary resources (Grow and Candy)
Examples:
__http://troy.troy.edu/artdesign/ART/facultypages/IndStudyAdam.pdf__
Real world experience as learning.
__http://www.muw.edu/honors/independent_study.htm__
Interesting to note that the teacher’s past experience has been that students leave their work to the last minute and don’t take deadlines seriously. The teacher’s solution is to impose a letter-grade deduction for every missed deadline.
__http://www.politics.ubc.ca/fileadmin/template/main/images/departments/poli_sci/Faculty/sens/425_SDLP_2010-2011.pdf__
(Found by Melissa)
1) The first project expects students take some initiative in selecting the work they present but the guidelines are pretty explicit and the expectations are well defined (length, content, presentation format). This is basically a homework assignment.
2) In this assignment, the student is expected to take more initiative and produce something unique. The theme is defined but the medium of delivery is up to the student. The concept must be approved by the teacher.
Teacher’s motivation for the project: “...our higher education systems seldom give opportunities for students to develop their practical and conceptual abilities to link intellectual thought and creative expression. So here is an opportunity!”
3) This phase of the course encourages students to apply their initiative in an exercise in critical thinking. The theme requirement is consistent with the rest of the course (war theme) and the finished result has specific requirements (“two pages double-spaced in length, describing the setting of the movie and your reflections on the film”) but the implementation of the film analysis, and analysis topic selection is up to the student.
4) “The Individual Learning Project (ILP) is an assignment that provides the student with the
maximum flexibility to pursue their own interests within the framework of the course subject.”
To accomplish this, the teacher suggests a variety of topics with very open ended parameters. Length is specified but the subject matter and source material is not.
Why I think this is a in/effective:
I think the way the projects build on each-other is an effective way to teach students what learning independently means. The course structure allows the student to gain an educated foundation in the course field of study before they are expected to selects a topic for independent thought. At the same time, the student is also gradually introduced to the concept of independent learning. By the end of the course they will not only have learned about “WAR AND SOCIETY”, they will also have gained important self-directed learning skills which they will be able to apply in other courses.
__http://www.marthalakecov.org/~building/lifelong/higher_ed/ramnarayan%20hande.htm__
(Found by Melissa)
“In a world in which the half-life of many facts and skills may be ten years or less, half of what a person has acquired at the age of twenty may be obsolete by the time the person is thirty.”
So true-from the time I learned about the solar system in middle school till now,we’ve lost an entire planet!
“Through self-directed learning you can control what you want to learn, how you want to learn and when you want to learn.”
Maybe in a perfect world, but I think a majority of people are too lazy to implement this method into all aspects of their education. There is some basic knowledge every student has to have...that’s the whole point of a liberal arts education.